US voters cast ballots in tight presidential race as contest nears climax; Muslims factor noticeable

NEW YORK: Millions of Americans are casting their votes Tuesday in the turbulent Presidential race between Democrat Kamala Harris and her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, in one of the closest and most consequential in modern history that has also seen Muslims becoming a factor in the election.

Polls will close at 6 PM on Tuesday ( 3 am PST Wednesday). Election results are sometimes declared state-by-state within hours of the polls closing – meaning a running tally – but this year’s tight contest could mean a longer wait.

In the final days of the campaign, the candidates have presented starkly different visions for the future of the country, with Trump fueling anti-migrant sentiment while also casting doubt on the integrity of the results.

Vice President Harris, who became the Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden withdrew, closed her bid with appeals to unity and a focus on policies intended to strengthen the economy and the middle class.

In the Senate, the Republicans need to pick up two seats in order to take control; in the House, Democrats will seek to regain the majority they narrowly lost in the 2022 midterms.

Muslim and Arab voters remained divided on the candidates as both blindly support Israeli war in Gaza that has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, most women and children, In the past, they were a solidly Democratic voting bloc, especially in the years following 9/11 and given Trump’s overtly anti-Muslim rhetoric.

But American Muslims are very angry with the Biden administration – and, by extension, Ms. Harris, for failing to stop Israel from its genocidal campaign in the Middle East. Now a section of American-Muslims seem willing to overlook Trump’s history of closeness with Israel’s hard-right leaders. “If, and when, they say, when I’m president, the US will once again be stronger and closer [to Israel] than it ever was,” Trump said last week. “I will support Israel’s right to win its war.”

Yet some national polls show Muslim-Americans slightly favouring the former president; others are increasingly vocal in support of the third outfit in the field — Green party’s Jill Stein, a socialist who has been sharply critical of US blind to Israel and the genocidal war against Gaza.

Both Trump and Ms. Harris visited states such as Michigan, Arizona and Texas where Muslims are concentrated in parts of those states.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani-American Public Affairs Committee (PAKPAC USA) has already endorsed Donald Trump, the former president.

According to new poll released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), topping the list of candidates now is neither Ms. Harris nor Trump, but Ms. Stein of the Green Party who has garnered a majority of the Muslim vote.

On its part, CAIR has not taken a position on the two main candidates but has urged Muslims to vote in large number and become a factor in the election.

Ms. Stein of the Green Party leads with 42% of the Muslim vote versus Ms. Harris at 41% and Trump at 10%. With a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points, however, that puts Ms. Stein in a dead heat with Ms. Harris, just as the two were in CAIR’s August survey when Ms. Harris had a slight lead with 29.4% of the Muslim vote to Ms. Stein’s 29.1%. Support for Trump dropped slightly from August, where the former president totaled 11.2%.

The presidential race churned by unprecedented events – two assassination attempts against Trump, President Joe Biden’s surprise withdrawal and Ms. Harris’ rapid rise – remained neck and neck as Election Day dawned, even after billions of dollars in spending and months of frenetic campaigning.

The first ballots cast on Tuesday mirrored the nationwide divide, according o media reports. Overnight, the six registered voters in the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, split their votes between Ms. Harris and Trump in voting just past midnight.

Across the East Coast and Midwest, Americans began arriving at polls Tuesday morning to cast their votes.

Trump’s campaign has suggested he may declare victory on election night even while millions of ballots have yet to be counted, as he did four years ago. The former president has repeatedly said any defeat could only stem from widespread fraud, echoing his false claims from 2020.

No matter who wins, history will be made.

Ms.Harris, 60, would become the first woman, Black woman and South Asian American to win the presidency.

Trump, 78, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted, would also become the first president to win non-consecutive terms in more than a century.

Opinion polls show the candidates running neck and neck in each of the seven states likely to determine the winner: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Reuters/Ipsos polling shows Harris leading among women by 12 percentage points and Trump winning among men by seven percentage points.

The contest reflects a deeply polarized nation whose divisions have only grown starker during a fiercely competitive race. Trump has employed increasingly dark and apocalyptic rhetoric on the campaign trail. Ms. Harris has urged Americans to come together, warning that a second Trump term would threaten the underpinnings of American democracy.

More than 80 million Americans had already voted before Tuesday, either via mail or in person, and lines at several polling stations on Tuesday morning were short and orderly.

Control of both chambers of Congress is also up for grabs. Republicans have an easier path in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats are defending several seats in Republican-leaning states, while the House of Representatives looks like a toss-up.

During the campaign, Trump hammered first Biden and then Ms. Harris for their handling of the economy, which polls show is at the top of voters’ concerns despite low unemployment and cooling inflation.

His unbridled approach seemed designed to fire up his supporters, rather than expand his appeal. Even more than in 2016 and 2020, Trump has demonized immigrants who crossed the border illegally, accusing them of fomenting a violent crime wave, and he has vowed to use the government to prosecute his political rivals.

Polls show he has made some gains among Black and Hispanic voters. Trump has often warned that migrants are taking jobs away from those constituencies.

By contrast, Ms. Harris has tried to piece together a broader coalition of liberal Democrats, independents and disaffected moderate Republicans, describing Trump as too dangerous to elect.

She campaigned on protecting reproductive rights, an issue that has galvanized women since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 eliminated a nationwide right to abortion.

Ms.Harris has faced anger from many pro-Palestinian voters over the Biden administration’s military and financial support for Israel’s war in Gaza. While she has not previewed a shift in U.S. policy, she has said she will do everything possible to end the conflict.

After Biden, 81, withdrew amid concerns about his age, Harris sought to turn the tables on Trump, pointing to his rambling rallies as evidence he is unfit, and has tried to court young voters, seen as a critical voting bloc.

Trump countered the likes of Ms. Harris supporters Taylor Swift and Beyonce with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who played an increasingly visible role as a top donor to Trump’s cause.